The three act structure which according to Dr. Ramirez-Berg was derived from Classical Dramatic Structure is the basis of many modern films. Director M. Knight Shyamalan gives a perfect example of this structure in his 2002 movie Signs.
The first act of signs is a bit longer than the traditional thirty minutes because it spends extensive time introducing the characters and what they have at stake. The protagonist Graham Hess lives with his brother Merrill and his two children Morgan and Bo. After suffering the death of his wife in the previous year Graham has abandoned his job as a reverend and no longer believes in God or in miracles. After mysterious crop circles appear in the family’s farm and rumors of aliens begin to arise in the town Morgan and Bo are convinced that aliens are plotting an invasion. Graham fails to believe in anything but his rationality and will not see all of the signs that lead to this invasion. The first act of the introduction reaches the first plot point when Graham is forced to accept the fact that the aliens are indeed going to invade. Graham receives a call from the man who hit and killed his wife asking for help and rushes to his house. He is told that inside an alien is locked in the pantry but he is very skeptical. It is not until after extreme tension and buildup that Graham looks under the pantry door and is faced with the fact that he has been denying. After seeing the alien and having it reach towards him Graham rushes out of the house and is now faced with the question of what to do next now that he has undeniable proof that the aliens are coming. 
The second act involves the complication in which the family prepares for the alien invasion and questions what to do to survive. This act involves Graham to question God and confront the horrible tragedy of his wife’s death. The second plot point towards the end of act two occurs after boarding up the house when the family sits down to dinner for their final meal before the aliens come later that night. Each family member has their favorite meal sitting in front of them as the melancholy mood is set by the camera slowly circling around the table. The children ask Graham if they can say Grace before eating and he breaks down and says “I'm not wasting one more minute of my life on prayer.” The whole family starts crying as they break down and realize what they are going to face in the hours to come. The act ends with the characters questioning life meaning and the existence of God. The question leads into the ways in which the characters act in the third act. 
In the final act of Signs, Shyamalan has the aliens invade the Hess house in the middle of the night. It is at this point that the climax occurs, but more specifically it is the moment in which all of the characters are standing in the living room watching as one of the aliens sprays poison gas into Morgan’s (Graham’s son) nose. The climax unravels as the family realizes how all of the little things that go on in their lives have led up to this moment in which they have a choice to either believe or not believe. They kill the alien and rush Morgan to the front yard. The movie ends with all of the characters laying on the front lawn, praying to God for Morgan to survive. He is revived purely by the fact that the gas did not get into his lungs because of the horrible asthma he suffers. Faith is restored to the characters and they have escaped the alien attacks. The three act structure is displayed perfectly in this film as the protagonist is faced with a worldly dilemma that causes him to face the moral dilemma he has been avoiding. The film allows you to first understand the characters and their problems, then watch as they attempt to resolve the problems and ends with the characters resolving the problem. 
